Typically, dirty gas is conveyed at a high velocity through an air inlet into a housing of a dust collector containing filters wherein dust particles from the dirty gas are deposited on the filters. The particle-laden gas is conveyed into the dust collector at such a high velocity that the dust particles abrade the filter media requiring the replacement thereof. Another problem with the high velocity inlet employed heretofore in dust collectors is the reentrainment or rehandling of dust particles within the dust collector, resulting in uneven deposits of dust particles on the filters which leads to areas of blinding. Those filter areas hardest hit in the beginning continue receiving the same blast of dirty gas, and more and more dust is retained in these areas until the filter areas which received less flow and dust originally soon receive all the flow at much higher velocities, all resulting in shorter filter life, higher pressure drop across the collector, and lowered performance.
To overcome the problem of filter abrasion and dust particle reentrainment, after considerable research and experimentation, the air inlet of the present invention has been devised to convey dirty gas to a dust collector in such a manner that it enters the dust collector housing as a cloud of dust which envelops the filters in the housing to thereby provide uniform dust deposits along with a uniform air flow through all the filters.